hard drive questions

i'm building my own computer, but don't know really TOO much about it. i want a fast hard drive, 10000 rpms and i'm thinking about getting this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=0 , its a western digital raptor sata hd, and i want to use it for a desktop gaming pc. i'm adding another hard drive too, it'll also be an sata. here are my questions:

Do I need to buy any other accesories for it, like cords, adaptors and such? Since I want a dual hard drive, should i buy anything to connect them or something?

and

I hear people talking about a raid 0 configuration. what is that and do i need it for my pc, and what are some other options?

i might not know what i'm talking about, its because i kind of don't. so please help me out lol, and thanks in advance

 

Well, it depends on what motherboard you have. If it is a new motherboard, it may have an SATA controller onboard. If not, then you'll need a PCI SATA controller. This will allow you to plug the hard drives into your motherboard. If you give us the make and model of your motherboard, we can tell you if you need one or not.

Raid 0 is basically taking two or more hard drives and having them act as one large drive. Instead of reading and writing from only one drive at a time, you read and write to them both at the same time. This speeds up your access time. You can decide if you want to do this later. First you need to get the make and model of your motherboard.

 

ok, like i said, i don't really know too much about computers. i plan on getting this motherboard, an ASUS "P4P800 SE" i865PE Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, and it can be found here: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-484&depa=1 . if you can, also please give me your opinions on this motherboard, if its a good one and if its good for the price, if not, maybe suggest other options that you know of. i'm willing to spend around 130 on a motherboard. thanks again

 

Ok, that motherboard is fine. ASUS is a good motherboard manufacturer. As long as you go with one of the big motherboard manufacturers, you should be ok. (Asus, Abit, MSI, and Gigabyte are the ones I like)

The P4P800 has SATA and RAID capabilities. It should also come with the data cables as well. The only thing you will need is possibly a power connector or two that will let you plug the hard drives into the power supply. I don't think SATA connectors are quite mainstream on PSUs yet. I bought a new power supply a little while ago and it only has one with it. You can find them at newegg here: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=12-104-652&DEPA=1

Now, you may or may not need these. The drives or motherboard *might* come with them, but they are only $3 each, so you may want to get a couple just in case.

Now, as for the RAID 0, it will give you a good boost in performance whenever the hard drive is being accessed. Decreases loading times in games and when transferring files. The best way to do it is get two identical drives, then you just set them up during the Windows installation. After that, the two drives just act like one.

 

also be aware that Raid 0 arrays are highly unstable... meaning you're at least doubling the chance that one of your drives will fail on you within a year.

unless you're good about backing up important files, and you dont mind having to replace a drive (hopefully still under warrant) i'd stick with a regular SATA drive, they are plenty fast.

I'm not trying to deter you, Raid 0 gives significant performance gain. I'm just letting you know what the risks are.

 

Here is few links relating to Raid:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=2101
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Articles/RAID/
http://www.acnc.com/raid.html

I wouldnt mind having a couple of those 10,000rpm raptors, 5yr warranty, just alittle pricey. ( I guess I'm waiting for price drop)

For the price of one raptor you can have two Maxtor 80bg SATA, for power connectors it has both Molex and new sata power connection's, although 7200 rpm. One yr warranty, Look Here:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100710
Your ASUS board will come with cables to connect SATA HDD's to SATA Header.

There are several PS that do have SATA power plugs, if you have one that doesent, no matter, adaptor will get you power, as stated above Maxtor HDD's can connect to molex as well as SATA, just only use one or the other not both.
Enermax has PS with SATA connects, I'm getting one of these for my next Build:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=270318

In one of those Links above are test's reviews which claim there is no Real benifit using Raid configuration to enhance gaming preformance, Raid configuration will not help you get more frames per second.